The present invention relates to a silver halide color photographic material. More particularly, the present invention relates to a silver halide color photographic material that is improved in granularity and color reproduction and which yet permits efficient desilvering.
The need for a silver halide color photographic material (hereinafter referred to as "a color photographic material") capable of producing high-quality image is constantly growing and a particularly strong need exists for improving its granularity and color reproduction.
Dyes formed as a result of coupling reaction between couplers and the oxidized products of aromatic primary amino developing agents have unwanted absorption in varying degrees and cause undesired phenomena in color reproduction such as hue distortion and reduced color purity. In particular, dyes formed from 5-pyrazolone based magenta couplers have pronounced absorption in the blue at about 430 nm and active efforts have been made to develop magenta couplers having a minimum degree of such secondary absorption. Magenta couplers that have been developed to meet this need include the pyrazolotriazole compounds described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,725,067 and the pyrazolopyrazole compounds described in Research Disclosure No. 24230, June 1984. However, these magenta couplers have such a nature that their ability to form color is increased with the pH of color developers. In the color reversal process, the pH of the color developer used is high (typically in the range of 11-13) as compared with the case of processing of color negative films or color photgraphic paper, and the above-mentioned magenta couplers cannot be commercially used in such color reversal process without reducing sensitivity or increasing granularity on account of their high color forming ability.
A scavenger of the oxidized product of a color developing agent is frequency incorporated in light-sensitive emulsion layers containing the above-mentioned couplers with a view to preventing the increase in granularity but this often causes a decrease in the efficiency of desilvering.
It is therefore desired to develop a photographic technique that is free from the problem of reduced sensitivity and which improves granularity and color reproduction without adversely affecting the efficiency of desilvering.